APC lists criteria for Senate presidential candidate

The National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress held a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday night and listed some criteria for the Senate presidential candidate.



Our correspondent gathered from reliable sources at the meeting that the NWC, among others, agreed that the Senate President must come from the geopolitical zone with the second highest number of votes, after the North-West, at the Presidential election held on March 28. 



The meeting, it was further learnt,  agreed that the next Senate president must not have any corruption charges hanging on his or her neck and should be one of the most ranking senators in the current Fourth Republic.



A senator who attended the meeting told our correspondent that the meeting also mandated the executive members of the party to, within three days, present a consensus candidate for the post of Senate president  based on the listed criteria,  during the inauguration of the Eight Senate. 



The two gladiators currently contesting the office of the Senate President are Senators Bukola Saraki ( Kwara Central ) and Ahmad Lawan ( Yobe North ). 



A group,  Like Minds Senators, working for the emergence of Saraki as Senate president, two weeks ago, compiled a list containing the names of 34 APC Senators-elect, who had endorsed him as the consensus candidate for the post. 



But there was a confusion  a week later when another group,  Senate Unity Forum,  addressed journalists in Abuja and claimed that 40 APC Senators-elect had endorsed Lawan as their concensus candidate.